TarotCraft

The first court card is the Page. In some decks, this card is titled Princess. Pages are linked with the element of Earth, which suggests something is growing, like a seed.

In this vein, the Page of Wands is known as Earth of Fire, or the seed of fire.

In a reading, the Pages can indicate children, or young adults. The Pages of Cups and Pentacles could indicate a female the the Pages of Swords and Wands a male. An immature adult may also appear in a reading as a page. If the Querant is starting something very new, like a creative project or job, they may also embody the energy of the Pages.

The Pages can mean that the Querent is about to receive a message.

Page of Wands

A message, possibly from far away, relating to travel, career development, a leadership position or something spiritual/philosophical.

Page of Cups

A message around relationships, love, family or romance - could be good or bad.

Page of Swords

A message that could be lies or gossip, or news of an illness or problem.

Page of Pentacles

A message relating to finance, money or good luck.

I was in a secondhand bookshop on the weekend and I came across the Tarot for Cats by Kipling West and Regen Dennis. It was first published in 1996 and I have come across a few mentions of it and card images on the net over the years. I was tickled pink to find a copy of it. I have it as a boxed set with a book and the 22 Major Arcana.

This is an amazing reading that a friend of mine did for a baby.  I am absolutely blown away by it.  She used the classic MotherPeace tarot, which has round cards instead of the usual rectangular cards.  This is her interpretation:

Baby Henry is 6 months old, and had the cards in his lap, and I asked him to consider the cards. I drew for him and did a reading of past, present, future.

Broadly speaking I interpreted them in this way:

Ace of Wands- his birth - the book says: one is brand new like  a baby and the force of fire streams through the personality… the spirit awakens like the springtime - happy, healthy and ready to begin. No interpretation needed!

Shaman of Wands - the present - it says -  powerful personality capable of accomplishing long-term goals… your warm friendly approach is disarming. As the card is upside down, we took it to mean him learning how to use ‘power’ and express him self and his needs.

Daughter of Discs - in the near future - representing a period of solitude and learning to trust you body….( we took this to mean that he is now ready to learn to move about a little more independently as he rolls, etc, and needs and enjoys the ‘alone’ time to learn about himself.

The 3 of Cups is a positive, happy card that shows good times happening, such as parties, outings and socialising with friends and fun people. This card indicates a lightening of any cares or worries.

My friend Cimone Louise is a professional 3rd generation clairvoyant and psychic medium.  She runs workshops based on the philosophies of Louise L. Hay and The Secret on a regular basis and is presenting a Psychic Development Circle this weekend 9 and 10 June.

The classes are both in the Sydney area and she is also avaialble for readings.  Drop her an email and find out more: clfung at bigpond.net.au

I found a couple of useful sites. www.swcp.com lets you download and print your own original version of the Rider-Waite deck. ww.Plaincards.com lets you create your own Tarot cards. Have fun!

The Tarot Guild of Australia holds a meeting on the third Thursday of every month at Adyar.  Turn up at 6pm and share tips on reading Tarot cards and meet other people interested in Tarot.  Membership to the Guild entitles you to 10% of tarot books and decks at Adyar, but the monthly discussion groups are free and open to all comers.  This month's talk is on  ”Finding Mr/Mrs Right in the Tarot”.

A: All of them:

The Fool has already started before anyone else is ready.

The Magician assembles an array of objects that might be needed, displays them to best advantage and starts discussing how to go about it.

The High Priestess sits in the background, knowing one thing is missing but says nothing.

The Empress fusses around making sure it is safe and nobody gets hurt.

The Emperor tells everyone he thinks it should be done right now and starts delegating responsibilities.

The Hierophant offers advice on the missing part after consulting with the High Priestess.

The Lovers umm and ahh about what wattage bulb to put in this time.

The Chariot charges in and starts doing it himself regardless of the others’ protests.

Strength surreptitiously places what’s needed into Chariot’s hands and gets it done her way.

The Hermit suggests a candle in a lamp would provide light in the meantime.

The Wheel of Fortune laughs and reminds everyone that the light will need changing again in the future.

Justice works out whose turn it is to change the light and whether the division of labour is being delegated fairly.

The Hanged Man sits back and contemplates how darkness can change our lives.

Death points out mournfully that this was bound to happen and how everything ends.

Temperance tells Death to chill out, it all evens up in the end.

The Devil tries to blame the Hanged Man for causing the light to blow and creates bad feelings all round.

The Tower suddenly starts ripping out the original light fitting so he can create a whole new more basic look.

The Star marvels at new beginnings and says how much she’s looking forward to having the light working again.

The Moon continually offers conflicting advice, confusing everyone until she wanders off to the relief of all.

The Sun wants to redesign the whole room around a much brighter light.

Judgement examines the globe to see whether it truly was its time to blow and ponders whether the globe can be recycled.

The World suggests that any problems with the light are temporary: we had light once, we will have it again, and suggests focussing on the bigger picture.

Meanwhile, the Fool has already finished changing the light bulb and is off doing his own thing.

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

If a card is ‘reversed’, it means it has come out of the deck upside down.  Some guides will give an upright and a reversed meaning for each card.  That’s fine if you want to memorise 156 individual meanings.  I don’t that think is practical or useful personally.  It’s not necessary to include reversals in your readings.  Just turn them right way up when you lay the cards out in the spread.  When you get more experienced and confident, you might want to include reversed cards, but it’s not necessary. If you keep your cards upright and one occasionally comes out reversed, you could look at it from two perspectives:

1. That is has a negative or opposite meaning to the upright card.

2. that is is particularly important to the reading and still read it as though it were unright, but the strongest card in the reading.

How do you know which is which?  Well that’s just time and practice.  The more you work with the cards, study their meanings, history and symbolism, the more readings you do, and maintain a practice of meditation, the clearer the meanings will be. All the books that give a formula for card meanings aren’t that much help in actually doing a reading.  There is no such thing as one size fits all in Tarot.  The cards are an insight into a person’s hopes, dreams, fears, their past, present and future.  Every symbol on every card, every combination of cards, needs to be looked at with fresh eyes every time.